For the meeting with the Italians, who the Werkself also beat 2-1 in a friendly exactly a year ago, head coach Xabi Alonso selected the following line-up: in front of goalkeeper Matej Kovar, captain Jonathan Tah, Robert Andrich and Piero Hincapie formed the back three, flanked by Nathan Tella and Alejandro Grimaldo. Exequiel Palacios and Granit Xhaka started in the middle, with Adam Hlozek, Florian Wirtz and Patrik Schick lining up in attack. The subs' bench comprised of Niklas Lomb, Jonas Hofmann, Nadiem Amiri, Noah Mbamba, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Jeremie Frimpong, Madi Monamay, Gustavo Puerta and Ayman Aourir along with youngsters Ken Izekor, Francis Onyeka, Reno Münz and Filip Milojevic. Lukas Hradecky and Josip Stanisic were absent for personal reasons.
Leverkusen quickly seized the initiative against Venezia, who were captained by former Bayer 04 player Joel Pohjanpalo. Playmaker Wirtz had the first big chance in the ninth minute, but his first-time shot from Palacios' chip over the top was pushed out by goalkeeper Jesse Joronen. The Finnish shot-stopper was kept busy, saving two more efforts from Wirtz as well as an attempt by Schick inside the first quarter of an hour. Hlozek then produced the deserved opening goal in the 16th minute, burying the ball into the bottom corner from around 16 metres when the ball ricocheted to him from the penalty area. The Czech Republic international completed his brace four minutes later from Tella's cross. The Werkself continued to play comfortably and Schick made it 3-0 with a header from a Grimaldo corner on 33 minutes - a lead they took into the break.
Alonso made two substitutions at the break, Frimpong replacing Tella and Hofmann coming on for Schick, while Venezia made eight changes. One of the visitors' new faces, Gianluca Busio, had their best chance so far on 49 minutes, but his attempt was blocked by Andrich. Bayer 04 then nearly scored a fourth on the resulting counter, but Hofmann's pass to the unmarked Frimpong ended up in the arms of Joronen.
Joronen was picking the ball out of his net again in the 55th minute, though. A cross from Grimaldo was only cleared as far as Hofmann, who volleyed it into the bottom left corner. Ten minutes later, Alonso brought on six sets of fresh legs: Amiri, Puerta, Mbamba, Fosu-Mensah, Münz and Izekor replaced Xhaka, Wirtz, Hincapie, Grimaldo, Hlozek and Palacios. Lomb then took the place of Kovar in goal another 10 minutes later. Shortly after that, the much-changed Leverkusen team conceded a goal from Venezia winger Olivieri. That was followed by the final two substitutions from Alonso, with Andrich and Tah making way for Monamay and Milojevic. For the latter it was his first-team debut. There were no more real chances before full time, and so it finished 4-1.
FC Augsburg are the Werkself's opponents for the first competitive fixture of the new year. The Matchday 17 clash takes place on Saturday 13 January (kick-off 15:30 CET) at the WWK Arena. One week later, the second half of the campaign begins with a Saturday evening encounter at RB Leipzig (20 January, 18:30 CET).
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Kovar (Lomb 74') – Tah (Monamay 79'), Andrich (Milojevic 78'), Hincapie (Fosu-Mensah 64') – Tella (Frimpong 46'), Palacios (Amiri 64'), Xhaka (Puerta 64'), Grimaldo (Münz 64') – Hlozek (Izekor 64'), Schick (Hofmann 46'), Wirtz (Mbamba 64')
Venezia FC: Joronen (Grandi 74'), Pierini (Busio 46'), Altare, Jajalo (Candela 46'), Bjarkason (Tcherichev 46'), Pohjanpalo (Gytkjaer 46'), Dembele (Tessman 46'), Svoboda (Modolo 74'), Sverko (Johnsen 46'), Andersen (Olivieri 46'), Ellertsson (Zampano 46')
Goals: 1- 0 Hlozek (16'), 2-0 Hlozek (20'), 3-0 Schick (33'), 4-0, Hofmann (54'), 4-1 Olivieri (78')
Referee: Nico Fuchs (Odenthal)
Attendance: 12,796 at the BayArena
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